


Trading Spaces

by mysterycyclone



Category: Zombies Run!
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Gen, s4 spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-03
Updated: 2017-07-05
Packaged: 2018-11-22 22:49:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,799
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11390037
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mysterycyclone/pseuds/mysterycyclone
Summary: What if Five had been fast enough to go inside that school ahead of Sam? Spoilers for S4M22!





	1. Chapter 1

Owen catches the door just as it tries to slam shut and holds it. It's a very near thing--Five can see the muscles in his arms bulge and strain to near breaking point. He can only keep it open halfway.

Sam hesitates for half a second, but she dives inside ahead of him, just as Owen loses his grip. Five’s barely able to get through the narrow opening before the door slams shut behind her and re-engages its magnetic locks with a soft _click_ . She hears a solid _thunk_ and muffled _“Ow!”_ on the other side of the door; Sam must have been right on her heels. She can hear Owen’s voice too, but it's too muffled to make out the words. He sounds shocked, at a loss.

The zombie holding the baby is fast, and the school is overwhelmed with others. The yelling, the baby crying, and the slamming of the door has riled them up into a full frenzy. The horde is coming. Five starts to run down the hall. Her headset chirps.

“Five! Can you hear me?” Sam’s voice is tinny, staticy, and barely heard over the sound of the horde and the baby's cries. Five latches onto it as she pounds after the sentient zombie. She can still hear _her_ somewhere in the back of her mind, ready to come in and save the day, and she refuses to let go of herself again. Not now. This is too important. She tries to respond, to tap out a message, but the connection is too unstable. Frustrated, she gives up for now. She’ll update them later.

Her leg is still bleeding freely from the bomb,  and the smell of it is riling up the horde even more. Five leaves a trail of it behind her, limping on every third step before forcing herself put pressure on it as normal--she can't afford to fall behind. The pain helps her drive back the woman inside her mind, and the adrenaline keeps her from being overwhelmed. Sara taught her how to use that sudden, sharp, almost painful shot of adrenaline to her advantage a long time ago. Five was grateful for that skill now.

The radio bursts again, all static. Then Janine’s voice comes through at the tail end of another burst, just as Five passes a door into a room full of shuffling figures and grimy windows. Her voice is sharp, clear. An anchor that helps clear the panic and pain crowding Five’s mind, like that trick Sara showed her but better. “Runner Five, respond! We need a sitrep now!”

Five taps a quick signal through the radio. She can hear her own breath transmitting through the static. An echo effect that sometimes happened with their radios. It used to drive Sam mad. _Here. I see them. Following._

“I don't….I don’t have cams! I can’t help you.” Sam again. She had never heard him sound so helpless, so frustrated. “Just, please, get my baby back! Come back safe, both of you!”

Five taps out an affirmative, keeps running. It's pitch black inside the building, and she has to be careful of the shadows and make sure she doesn't trip over any debris. Some of those bodies may well be other zombies. The building smells like an abattoir. Combined with the darkness, the mumbling sentient zombie, and the wailing of the infant, it was an overall hellish atmosphere.

Her world narrows to the fleeing form of the zombie ahead of her, determined to catch up. Blood loss slows her down, makes her stumble again. She loses ground, and her head swims with fear and nausea at the thought of what the zombie could do to the innocent life in its arms if it got frustrated or too far ahead. Sentient zombs were still _zombs._

The zombie groans, moving towards the west side of the building, and Five chases her. It slows from its run, turns, shuffles down a corridor and into a room. Five stops at the doorway. The only other way through the building was blocked by a collapsed wall. Her only exit was behind her, and that was slowly being filled with zombies.

_Stopped. East side of building. Window with bars, big orange sign,_ Five taps out, slowing to a stumbling walk. Her legs had gone numb, save for the burning tear along right one. It was fortunate that the building was full of shamblers; if it had been full of zombies as fast as this sentient one, she would have been in torn apart the moment she entered the building.

“We’re on our way!” Owen says this breathlessly, and Five can hear his and Sam’s footsteps as they run to her side of the building. They’ll be at the window in seconds. Good. They couldn’t help her directly, but she always felt better knowing Sam was watching her back.

Now she just couldn’t let him down. She’d never be able to look him in the eye again if something happened to his daughter while Five was less than a foot away.

The room is filthy, and relatively empty save for a small cage in the center of it. The zombie stands in the center, docile, muttering the word _Greenshoot_ over and over again to a thoroughly uninterested infant. Five moves around  the zombie slowly, trying to figure out the best way to approach. Behind her, the shambling horde closes off her escape route completely, and she feels herself checking the rest of the room. Bars on the windows with gaps wide enough for the baby, but too thin for her. There was an air duct vent in the far corner, but again, that was too small.

_Get the baby, get her somewhere safe._ Five forced herself to focus. _Stupid rookie mistake to corner myself like this--_ Except it wasn’t. Some part of her had been making small mistakes for a long time. Ever since she blew up those boats. Nothing too big, nothing that Sam or Janine would notice, but mistakes nonetheless that put her life in danger.

The window here was broken months ago judging by dust, and the light from the setting sun is bright enough that she can see the zomb’s face clearly for the first time. It turns empty eyes towards Five, wearing an all too familiar face.

Five stumbles back, knocking over a chair. The zombie moans, aggravated, but calms once it realizes it isn’t in danger. A voice comes through her headset immediately.

“Five? What's wrong?” Maxine now. “Oh, god, did it hurt her--”

_No._ She taps out, steadying her breathing. It was like looking into the future. _Zomb looks like me._

That revelation causes a brief, confused pause before Sam comes in again. “We’re coming, Five. We’re almost there.”

She can hear Owen demand to know where their back up is as they get close to the window, and she sees Sam’s face on the other side of the bars. He looks as terrified as Five feels, and her heart breaks at the sight. It wasn’t fair that he had to go through this. _She_ was the one who deserved it, not him.

“Oh, god. Okay.” He says, gripping the bars hard enough to turn his knuckles white. Owen is behind him, arguing with Jody about how they need back up _now._ “Okay, nice and easy, Five. It might not even react to you. Bloody hell, it _does_ look like you.”

That last comes out in a horrified whisper, and she knows he’ll have nightmares about it. Everyone has nightmares about seeing their friends go gray, but Sam has seen it often enough that it keeps him up at night. Five can’t count the number of times he’s woken her with a gasp and nearly fallen out of the bed in an effort to get outside and into fresh air. She usually chases him down outside the comms shack, and just holds his hand.

Five moves in close, slowly, keeping her movements steady and even. Her arms start to tremble when she gets close, and the baby’s cries reach a new level of sound she had never encountered before. It was piercing, and the zombie squirms again, adjusting its hold. Five holds her breath, then carefully reaches over and grabs the squirming infant, plucking her right of the zombie’s arms. The zombie groans, shifts, and turns to stare but Five is already moving.

“Sam? What's going on?” Five had never heard Maxine sound so scared. It hurt to hear her friends like this. “Is she safe? Do you have her?”

She reaches the window in an instant, shoving the squalling infant into Sam’s arms through the bars. She scrapes a strip of skin off against the rough iron and doesn't even feel it. The zombie behind her is enraged, it roars and sprints at her, and she knows she has only a second before it reaches her.

Sam clutches his daughter close, holding her against his chest protectively. “I’ve got her! She's safe, Maxi!” His voice is triumphant, awestruck. He adjusts his hold to support the baby's head, handling her like spun glass. “She looks just like my dad--oh, god, _Five!”_

Five knows what's about to happen, and knows she can't possibly move fast enough to stop it. The zombie wearing her face rips her back from window, and she barely has enough time to sign one last time before it grapples with her.

_Go home! Don't watch! Run!_ The zombie was strong, much stronger than she was even if she hadn’t been blown up after fighting off a deranged MI6 agent. In her current condition, she was no better than an exhausted kitten.

Still she fought, and managed to avoid the monster's teeth the first time it tried to bite her. She didn't avoid the second. Five lets out a silent, wordless scream as the zombie bats her arm aside, ducking its head down to lock its jaw on her shoulder. She couldn't throw it off--it's teeth were in too deep and she was simply too tired, too exhausted.

“Oh, god! It's bitten her! It got Five!” Owen cries, yanking at the iron bars blocking the window with all his strength. They don’t even budge. He curses, tries again, and futilely kicks the wall. “Where the _bloody_ hell is our back up, Jody!”

Sam stands frozen, staring in blank horror.  Five can see him out of the corner of her eye, can see the tears coming out of his eyes. Five finds her footing and shoves the zombie back, slamming it against the wall hard enough that it slackens the zombie’s jaw and forces it back and away. Five even managed to yank the keycard off its uniform, for all the good that would do her. It stumbles for a moment, getting its bearings. Strips of flesh and Five’s shirt hang loosely from between its yellow teeth, and bright red blood stains its jaw and neck.

Bitten. She was bitten. Worse, the horde was was right outside the door, packed too tightly together to make it in just yet but it wouldn't take them long to sort themselves out. They could smell the blood. There was no escaping this.

A part of her she tried to ignore wasn’t precisely heartbroken by that. It was something she deserved, after all she’s done. At least she could die knowing she balanced out _some_ of her blood debt.

“Five, I'm so sorry--” Sam began. He looked sick, and to her eternal annoyance, he was _still here._

_GO! Run home!_ Moving her left arm was torture now, each movement shooting a lance of hot pain down her back and chest. More blood poured out of the wound, staining her shirt, running down her back. In the corner of her eye, she could see the zombie steady itself and prepare for another lunge. She directed the next message to Owen. _Get him out of here!_

Owen nods, grabs Sam and gently pulls him along, blocking his view. There are tears in his eyes, but he’s doing his best to keep them at bay. Sam resists for half a second, then turns and ducks his head down over his child, running away. She can hear his sobs from here.

“Five,” Maxine. She’s crying, too. “Thank you. I’m so, so sorry, but thank you. I’ll never forget you.”

_Take care. Runner Five, signing off._ Five taps out, then shuts off her headset. She can't handle hearing her friends like that. It brings back too many memories. People cried when those boats went up into flames, too. She doesn’t deserve that consideration. And she doesn't want the few people who thought she was a hero hear her die.

At least there wouldn’t be any screams.

The zombie lunges--and moves past her. It tears into the horde, protecting her. It still moans out the word ‘Greenshoot’ while it tears the others apart. She almost wishes Veronica could see it. It might help her research.

Five keeps back from the horde, waits for the right moment to move. She doesn't want to die here, and doesn't intend to. She needs to get out. This place was too important. Already a plan was forming; get out, handcuff herself somewhere visible for the other runners to find her when she's turned. They’ll do their duty and find the keycard. There could be something important here. Maybe even a cure. But first she has to break through that horde.

Hell, a few more bites won't matter at this point. She still has some medical restraints in her pack.

There's a lull in the action at the door. Five takes in a deep breath, and then sprints through the horde. A few grab her, but they're shamblers--weak, mostly decomposed, and easily shaken off. But there are _so many._ She dodges around two more, and one bites into her arm while she holds another at bay. She can feel its teeth scrape against bone for a brief second, and her stomach churns when the smell of it hits her. She doesn't have time to grapple with it. The rest will swarm her and tear her apart.

Five grits her teeth and yanks her arm away from the shambler. It tears off a chunk of flesh from her arm, but it knocks the zombie off balance. She kicks out its knee, and the joint collapses in on itself with a sickening _crunch_ and sends it to the floor. The rest of the horde is close enough that their fallen comrade trips them up and delays them. Five runs back into the dark, towards the entrance, and slams the key card against the lock. The door slides open with a pleasant beep, and Five stumbles out into the fading sunlight and back towards Abel. She knows exactly where to go.

 

\---

 

They find her two days later, chained to a fence near one of the most common paths she took while on a supply run. Delirious from pain and thirst, she waits for them there.

Five is sitting on the ground, fading in and out of consciousness. Her shoulder and arm were on fire, and each beat of her heart made the pain worse. The bite on her arm had turned to an angry, swollen red. The slightest touch against it was agony. The brief moments of clarity were torture to her. Moonchild had broken free of whatever mental compartment Five kept her in. She kept observing Five. Narrating her death.

Her back itched like mad. The dried blood and sweat glued her shirt to her skin, and the heat of the past two days had only made it worse. She woke only to mark the time. She knew Janine’s protocols. She guessed that someone would have been sent out to grant her that final mercy by now.

She started fade back into a restless sleep when the voice inside her mind started once more. “Wait a tic, Five. I think someone's coming to see you. Up and at ‘em! You should at least say goodbye.”

Moonchild was right. Two people moved down the path towards her. She could barely make out the number 4 on one runner’s shirt. _Jody._ Relief flooded through Five. She could always count on Jody. She hoped Janine would make her Head of the Runners after this. She had certainly earned it.

The sing song voice of Moonchild came to her again, just as Jody and Amelia crest the last hill to reach her. Five can hear them arguing over something. “You know, Five. Dying isn't all that bad. We’ll have plenty of time together! People like us, we don't go to the nice place. Take it from the resident expert.”

That voice had been tormenting her ever since she chained herself to the fence. She angrily swipes at the air in front of her, doing her best to sweep away the voice. At least Moonchild hadn’t taken over again. In the distance, she sees Jody and Amelia pause and continue their argument, then resume walking towards her.

Five fades away for a second, and when she opens her eyes again, she sees Jody. The sun has shifted position. She must have been watching Five for awhile.

Jody has a pistol in her hand. She pauses when she sees Five, her face a mask of horror and shock. Five realizes she must look worse than she feels. Amelia smirks, but Five can see the same horror in her eyes, somewhere deep down. Or she was simply horrified at herself for somehow allowing herself to be dragged into this.

“Lost your nerve, Four? I suppose I can do it. Simon isn’t here to stop me this time.” She raises her pistol and centers it on Five.

“I’ll see you soon, Five.” Moonchild says, finally fading away forever. Five closes her eyes, lowers her head, sighing in relief. She can hear voices on the Jody’s headset. She hears Sam’s voice, speaking forcefully, but can't decipher the words.

God, she missed his voice. It hurts to know that she won’t get to see him and Maxine raise their daughter.

Jody moves, pushing Amelia’s arm aside. “New orders. Veronica wants us to bring her back. Come on, Five--don't give me that look! I'm not above smacking you in the head and dragging you back! And you, Amelia! Don’t think you’re off the hook! You’ll be watching our backs the whole trip or I’ll feed you to the nearest zomb I can find!"

  
Amelia lowers her gun and rolls her eyes. “I doubt we’ll have to go too far for that.”

“Shut up,” Jody says, cutting away the restraints Five placed on herself. “Up you go, Five. Let’s go.”


	2. Coming Home

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is utterly self indulgent, but please enjoy it anyway.

Five leans against Jody hard. The wound on her leg from that car bomb was just as infected as the bite on her arm, and it slows her down to a near crawl. Jody has one arm around Five’s waist, gripping the waistband of Five’s sweatpants. Her other arm is holding Five’s uninjured one across her shoulders. Jody is practically carrying her when Five is awake, and  _ does _ carry her when Five slips back into unconsciousness. It happens three times before Jody, puffing, slows to a stop and brings them to a rest on top of a small hill. They’re barely halfway back to Abel. The only good thing about that sad run was that there weren’t any zombs around to make their lives even more difficult.

Jody gently sets Five down, helping her lean back against a tree. She flops down beside her, panting. “Okay. Okay, we’re gonna have to get some help out here. Sorry, Five, but I can’t carry you back on my own. Sam and Maxine convinced Janine to send out a jeep with the Builder. We’ve been clearing off the bombs, so it should be safe enough now.”

“And that’s my cue to leave,” Amelia interjects. “I came to help you find Five, I did my part--my  _ uncommissioned _ part, mind you--and I’ve other appointments to keep. Nice to see you again, Five--well, not really. But at least I won’t be your first meal when you go grey. Toodles!”

Amelia runs down the path and Jody flips her off, muttering something unkind under her breath. It speaks to her exhaustion that she mutters the insults and doesn’t yell them after Amelia. Five chuckles quietly, shifting to a more comfortable position. She jars her arm and hisses in pain, cradling it.  _ That _ would keep her awake for awhile.

“Good riddance.” Jody mutters, reaching over to grab Five’s headset from her. She fiddles with it outside of Five’s view, then settles it back over Five’s grimy hair. “Hang on, Five. Sam’s going to stroke out if he doesn’t hear from you. And Dr. Lobatse says we need to keep you awake as much as we can. She says she doesn’t like the look of that arm.”

She can hear his voice before Jody sets the headset on. “That’s a bit dramatic, Jody! I just said I wanted to hear from Five if she was able to talk--”

“I don’t think you have the right to call me or anyone else dramatic after the past three days, Sam. Your life is better than most of the stories I’ve seen on TV.” Jody quips, standing up to keep watch for the jeep. And to give them some space.

Five really did enjoy seeing her again.

“Five?” Sam has clearly chosen to ignore Jody’s teasing--or at least was willing to admit defeat.  “Five, let me know if you can hear me. I can see your headset is on from here, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t any bad wires.”

His tone brooked no argument. She reaches up and taps out slowly. It takes much more effort than it should.  _ Hi, Sam. Here. _

He lets out an explosive breath, as if he didn’t quite believe she was real until she spoke to him. She can hear the smile in his voice. “Good to hear from you again, Five. Stay with us. Veronica says she can get you back to normal--something about Van Ark’s research, tranquilizers, and something she found inside that stash of papers you found awhile back. It’s all a bit beyond me, to be honest, but she thinks it can help Paula, too.”

_ That’s a long shot.  _ She hesitates, tries to make her taps more forceful, to emphasize her point.  _ This isn’t safe. I already hurt you before. I can’t do that again. _

And the part of her that makes mistakes knows she doesn’t deserve to come back from this. Not when millions, billions of others die after they’re bitten. What right does someone like her have to come back from that?

She feels like she understands Simon a bit more now.

“You won’t, Five. I know you.” His faith is so sure, so complete, that she can’t bring herself to argue with him. She even almost believes him. He continues, and his voice feels like home. “Chin up, Five. We’ve gotten you out of worse spots than this. Not  _ much _ worse, maybe, but still.”

She feels tears in her eyes--dangerous, given how little water she’s had over the past two days--and she leans back against the tree. She taps another simple message.  _ How’s the baby? _   
_ That  _ sets Sam off on a full tangent--he’s already read five stories to her, and has the teddy bear Five gave him all ready for when she gets big enough to hold it. He and Maxine take turns during the night, and Paula’s seen the baby and held her--

Five listens to him drone on, blinks once, twice, and then falls asleep. It was inevitable; he’d often talk her to sleep at Abel, too. It was the only way she could get to sleep sometimes.

She wakes to a familiar voice and strong arms helping her up. It's evening now, judging by the red sunlight. Sissay’s arrived, and he and Jody are pulling her up and carrying her to the jeep. 

“You’re looking a bit rough, love.” He says, his voice low and soothing. She always did like his voice. “C’mon. In you go.”

He helps her settle into the back while Jody climbs into the driver’s seat. Despite the bone deep exhaustion, Five can't help herself.  _ Is that a grenade in your pocket or are you just happy to me? _

Sissay grins. “Grenade, of course.”

_ Knew it.  _ Five hears Sam snicker over the headset. It's strained, exhausted; he really is terrified for her.

Five lays down in the back of the jeep, blinks, and when she opens her eyes again, the gates to Abel are sliding shut behind them. Dr. Lobatse is in front of her, checking her vitals, all business--she eyes the bite wound on Five’s arm and presses her lips into a thin line. Five can see Owen running towards the jeep with a wheelchair. The guards are nervous when they see the bite on her arm, and a few clutch their weapons, but most are relieved to see her. 

Owen grins at her, pointedly ignoring her bite wound, and helps her stagger out of the jeep and into the wheelchair. “Welcome home, mate.”

Another blink, and she’s in the infirmary, naked save for one of those silly patient robes that open in the back. Her hair is damp and she smells like the harsh soap Maxine keeps stored in the back for ‘emergency cases.’ An IV is plugged into her left arm, likely something to help with the infection on her arm and the dehydration from the last forty eight hours. The fluid inside the bag is a deep blue color that looks familiar Five. Her arm, her leg, and the bite on her shoulder ache beneath the bandages. Dr. Lobatse must have scoured the wounds clean while she was asleep.

Her room is sparse, but private. The doors and walls look soundproof and solid enough to withstand a bomb. This was either as a show of respect for her status at Abel or (more likely) a precaution in case Veronica’s treatment fails and she turns. Knowing Janine, it’s likely the latter, and that reassures Five. Janine would know exactly how to keep her contained if something went wrong. She would keep her promise. 

Her headset is sitting on the table beside her bed, and Five sees that it’s still on. Five taps a brief message on the mic-- _ Home. Sleep.-- _ and lays back down. She doesn’t even know if Sam is in the comms shack or not, but she knows the message will reach him one way or the other.

She’s too tired to turn into a zombie right now. It’ll simply have to wait.

\---

The next day is a blur. She can hear snippets of conversation, but her sense of time is gone. There are no windows her room to track the sun.

“It's fascinating, really!” Veronica says, moving around the room. Dr. Lobatse is standing over Five, adjusting the IV, checking her bandages. She smiles down at Five, and murmurs something encouraging. Five feels drugged, like she's been hit with a dozen tranquilizers. Everything’s gone slow, and she hears their voices in a strange, watery echo. Janine stands near Veronica, not  _ quite  _ shielding her from Five.

There's an excitement to Veronica’s voice Five has never heard before, and it cuts through her daze. “What Five did to Dr. Cohen with the tranquilizers is happening naturally to her. And her body  _ is  _ fighting the infection, it just can't get it all at once. If I had  _ known-- _ those papers Five found detail what Van Ark did to her. Apparently Moonchild wanted to know what happened and put Five through a few studies. Whatever he did made her partially immune. I can do the rest. _ ” _

“Can you help her? I'm taking quite a risk keeping her here, Veronica. This is in direct violation of at least three containment protocols.” Janine. Five turns towards her voice. Her arm is in a sling, and she looks exhausted, but her clothing is clean and neat. There's a pistol at her hip, and her hand rests on the grip. “If you can't--”

“Yes, yes, of course!” Veronica, agitated, moves to Dr. Lobatse, hands her something in a vial. “Add this to the IV. It  _ will _ work. I wouldn’t risk losing Five, not after what we’ve found in her blood. To think the answer’s been running alongside me the  _ entire time-- _ ”

Janine watches Dr. Lobatse attach the vial to the IV line. Five can read the doubt on her face, but she can also hear the faint thread of hope in her voice. “You said this could help Dr. Cohen, as well.”

“It can! Five has half of a cure in her blood right now. That’s the second half, what I was able to come up with.” Veronica starts to go into more detail, but Five fades out. Whatever Veronica says doesn’t make it through the fog until the tail end. “When it finishes working through her system, we can draw blood from Five and start work on a vaccine.”

Kefilwe smiles down at Five, squeezes her good shoulder. “I wouldn’t count on getting up and running as soon as this finishes, Five. That leg and arm are going to need to heal, too.”

That gets Veronica’s attention.

“You’ll be okay, Five!” Veronica pokes her head over the bed. Janine is not comfortable with having her this close to Five, no matter how drugged her Runner seems.  “I’ve triple checked this one. You’ll just be sleepy for awhile, that’s all.  Compared to most side effects, that’s almost nothing, really.”

The medicine has hit her. It leaves a strange tastes in the back of her throat, and then the numbing effect of a tranquilizer hits her full force. Five blinks up at her owlishly, then drifts back to sleep. 

“That’s a good sign,” Veronica says to Janine.

“I’m keeping an armed guard here just in case,” Janine replies. “The Builder can extend his stay for a few more days.”

“He had better not plant any C4 on my door,” Dr. Lobatse says, “Or I’ll have his head.”

\--

When Five wakes up again, she’s in a different room. Her room, in fact. The one in the runner’s quarters. She’s in her bed, dressed in a set of pajamas, and the bandages on her leg, shoulder, and arm have been replaced. The window is open to let in a bit of air, and Five can hear the quiet murmur of the night watch as they move past. Someone down the hall has left their radio on, and Afterlife on Earth drones on in quiet even tones. It’s dark, but there’s a full moon out, and she can see well enough in the dark. She shifts, sits up and winces when she pulls the muscles in her leg.

“Knew you’d wake up soon,” Says a tired voice beside her. She looks over and finds Sam sitting on a chair next to her bed. He looks beyond exhausted, but relieved. He reaches over and cups Five’s cheek, smiling. “Hey, sleepyhead.”

She can’t help but smile back. She leans into his hand and nuzzles his palm. Her arms ache and protest when she signs, and she can feel the bruise on the inside of her elbow from the IV line.  _ Hi. You have bedhead. _

She reaches up to ruffle his hair and his chuckles, catching her hand with his free one and squeezing it briefly. “Yeah, yeah. You should see Maxine’s right now. I swear she still has bits of the van in her hair--not that I plan on mentioning it, mind. She and the baby are fine, by the way. And Paula, too. They’re both looking after the little one right now.”

_ What happened? _ She knows she should have been in the infirmary, under guard, (or dead, really) but she can’t argue against her current environment. At least not right now. She slips her hand back into his, intertwines their fingers.

“A few of the Mullins people ran into some of those hidden bombs outside their base, and Kefilwe needed the bed space for them.” He squeezes her hand, leans down and presses his lips against her fingertips. “Veronica did it. She cured you. Paula, too. Our daughter will have both of her mums now, thanks to you. They had to use a lot of your blood for it.”

She traces his lips for a moment, then brings her hand back.  _ Veronica should get the credit. All I did was get bitten. _

Sam scoffs, but his tone is light. “Right. You only rescued an infant from a school packed full of zombies, got bitten by a sentient zomb and nearly died from exposure and exhaustion after being blown up by a bloody  _ car bomb. _ "

_ I was only  _ kind of  _ blown up.  _ She signs back, copping an innocent look.

He gives her a fond smile, then leans in and kisses her forehead. She sighs, moving closer to him, and he moves into the bed with her. The beds in Abel are small, so his chest presses up against her side. She shifts onto her side, winces when she bumps her wounded arm, then settles in against his chest. He slips an arm around her, pressing his hand against the small of her back. He turns and presses a kiss to her temple.

“You’re too hard on yourself, Five,” He murmurs against her hairline, rubbing her back. “You always have been.”

She melts against him, nuzzling along his jaw. She kisses his neck, and smiles when she feels him shiver and pull her closer.

_ How long can you stay? _ She knew he would be busy with the baby. It was a surprise he had spent this much time with her. A welcome surprise, and one she doesn't deserve.

He kisses along her hairline. “An hour or two.Maxine wants to spend a bit of time with Paula without the baby.” He moves his lips down her jaw, and she sighs, tilting her head to the side. She briefly runs her fingers through his hair, pressing close against his chest. “Maxine and Paula have our girl right now. They wanted me to check on you, make sure you're alright. If it wasn’t for the baby and Dr. Lobatse’s orders, Maxi would have kept you in the room with us.”

_ Stay with me?  _ She doesn't deserve this, to survive a bite and come back from it, to come back to  _ him.  _ Right now, she’s too selfish to care.

He kisses her, deep and slow, then presses his forehead against hers. “Always, Five.”


End file.
